


Foreign Lands

by CmonCmon



Series: Raising Warriors [18]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Armor Painting, Brotherly Bonding, Design Choices, F/M, M/M, Rancor Feels, Soft Wars, Star Wars AU - Soft Wars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:14:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26587969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CmonCmon/pseuds/CmonCmon
Summary: Rancor prepares to land on Coruscant
Relationships: Blitz (Star Wars)/Original Clone Character(s), Colt (Star Wars)/Shaak Ti
Series: Raising Warriors [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1835518
Comments: 44
Kudos: 244
Collections: Open Source Soft Wars





	Foreign Lands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Project0506](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Project0506/gifts), [Primarybufferpanel (ArwenLune)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenLune/gifts).



> The long-awaited trip to Coruscant. This is going to be a few parts, so prepare yourselves!
> 
> So grateful for the help of [PrimaryBufferPanel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenLune/works) and Jac (with the secret AO3) for their work as betas!
> 
> Per usual, go read Project0506's [Soft Wars](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683775).

Colt wasn’t worried about what was waiting for him on Coruscant. He had enough details on the upcoming meetings with Cody that he was prepared. There were just some things that couldn't be said across a holotable.

Yet, standing on the ramp of the venator as part of the party traveling with his General, Colt’s nerves spiked.

Shaak had made a few trips off Kamino while he’d been assigned there. Unlike some of the CCs, Colt’s role was to defend Kamino, not his General, so he’d picked squads to travel with her, just in case, knowing they would really be getting a few days’ trip to the core worlds. 

Rancor had never been granted a leave. Most of the men had never been to Coruscant, or spent time at 79’s, or had any of the other breaks most of their brothers had experienced at least once. Kamino wasn’t that kind of posting, and Colt understood that.

He’d tried to rotate as many of his troops as he could for the General’s trips. That was another careful project. Asking for volunteers was pointless. Rancor, he knew well enough, didn’t work like that. Every one of them would suggest someone else who needed it or wanted it more. 

And yet, this would be the first trip for him.

_ What kind of Commander left his post to sit around in the safety of a ship? _

Colt shoved down the doubts. He knew the answer. 

_ The kind that was ordered to by his Marshal Commander. _

And yet, there was something about the hum of hyperspace, the smell of a venator, that made him wish he was back on Kamino. Colt wouldn’t dwell. He and the troopers he’d brought with him were all prepared for whatever came. In the meantime, he’d focus on enjoying their time together.

The door to the rec room whooshed open and Colt wished he could pretend he hadn’t started.

“Supplies, sir.” A gear crate was piled up in Blitz’ arms.

Blitz hadn’t been on his original personnel list. Blitz didn’t like cities like Coruscant, so Colt had planned to leave him in charge while Havoc came along. That only lasted until his command staff got a look at the list.

“And sir, they had fresh paint aboard too.” Trib nodded to the row of cans he gathered against his armor.

And that was why Havoc had requested to swap places. Trib had never been to a core planet, had always wanted to see the bright lights of a place like Galactic City. 

That ache came back, the one that squeezed at his chest when he couldn’t find a way to tell troopers men how proud he was of the men they’d become.

“Few of the Star’s command asked if we wanted company.” Blitz set down the armor repair kit and cleaning supplies on the protective cloth Colt had laid out on the table. “Suggested they ask tomorrow.”

Colt bit back a laugh at that. Blitz was not known for gentle suggestions. “I’ll plan something with Bly for some brotherly bonding.”

It wasn’t personal. Rancor was just tight-knit. Private. Maybe sometimes a little hard to know. They took after him, Colt knew, but he wouldn’t regret that.

“A few of the others joined a sabbac game in the mess,” Trib offered.

“Good.” Colt wanted that. Wanted his men to feel close to their brothers, even if they didn’t have the same experiences. A few more Rancor troopers trickled in, pulling up a chair and beginning to strip off armor. 

Rancor didn’t get off Kamino often, but they weren’t going to show up looking shabby when they did. 

Colt set his bracers on the table for some work, and began to unsnap his pauldrons. That sound had taken on a different meaning since Shaak had removed his armor that first time. 

He cleared his throat and focused on what he was trying to do. Colt wasn’t happy with the repairs on his chest plate yet, and he’d found a hairline crack in one of his braces that would need to be glued and refinished. Then he could give everything a good cleaning and touch up the paint on the repairs. He set the chestplate down to rerepair the lightsaber burn.

“Sir!” Baar squawked, pulling Colt from his plans. Hammer shushed him. “I… uh. Sorry.”

“Shut it.” Blitz kept his head down, but the words were a warning growl.

Colt could scold Blitz all he wanted, but his SIC was still angry at the shiny for helping him out of medical. “What’s wrong, Baar?”

“Nothing, sir, just thought…” Baar stole one cautious glance towards Blitz. “Thought I saw something.”

“Something?” Colt repeated, watching Trib’s hand move discreetly to rest on Blitz’s forearm.

“Bruising, sir. On your...” Baar’s hand came up to gesture to the base of his neck. “Oh.”

_ Oh. _ Colt hadn’t exactly been hiding the marks. He had been keeping his uppers on for workouts, and walking back to his quarters for private showers. “Thank you for your concern, Baar.”

“Di’kut.” Hammer snickered.

Blitz eyed Colt. “You sure he’s ready for paint?”

That drew a wounded sound from the medic. Colt didn’t look away from Blitz. “Yes. I’m sure.”

Trib had slowly been adding his own, red and yellow in an asymmetrical band, but Trib had fought bravely in the Battle of Kamino. Baar had only been Rancor for a month at the time of the attack, but he’d followed Pots’ orders and done his part. 

“You can give him some creative guidance.” Colt knew that would soften the ARC up. Blitz didn’t brag, but he was artistic, and the swapped gear wasn’t the only reason Rancor command had the slickest armor in the GAR.

“Guess I could,” Blitz relented, and the conversation on paint scheme kicked up around the table with no further prompting.

Colt eased the armor glue into the crack in the bracer. He didn’t mind that his men saw the bitemark. He would have worn it proudly if it wasn’t for the trainers and the longnecks, but he wasn’t that reckless. 

“Grey?” Baar asked. 

“Only have a light one, but you can mix your own,” Blitz agreed. “Have to be careful matching it later.”

Colt roughed the excess glue, sanding through the rich red paint on the bracer as he smoothed the long hairline crack. He brushed the dust off with his thumb, and the slicing line of white-on-red pulled him up short.

Shaak was his General, after all. Everyone on Kamino knew that. But they were landing on Coruscant. Lots of other Jedi. Lots of other troopers.

“Pass me that one?” Colt gestured to white paint.

Hammer handed the can over. “Switching things up, sir?”

“Something like that.” If she hated it, he’d paint it over. He’d tell himself ‘if she even noticed it’ but Colt knew she would.

His men were polite enough to pretend they weren’t watching his every brushstroke as he criss-crossed bold white bands over the red and grey of his bracers. 

“Kark.” Baar’s shoulders sank. His neat lines were interrupted by a splatter of yellow. 

“Distracted, kid?” Colt couldn’t help but tease. 

“Uh… clumsy, sir?” Baar knew he wasn’t getting away with it. “Ruined it though.”

“It looks good.” Trib gestured like he was flicking water off his fingers. “Dramatic.”

Baar perked up a bit, brave enough to check Blitz’s reaction. “Really?”

Colt had no idea if the long, considering silence was genuine or just to torment the shiny a little more. 

“Not bad.” Blitz decided, pulling the can of black over. “You mind?”

Baar’s eyes were as big as blaster cannons. “No, sir.”

Blitz judged it for a moment before adding a scatter of drops of black, making the whole thing look more like art than a food stain. He paused again before putting one black slash on the chest, over the heart, and directly through the neat red and yellow lines. 

“You like it?” Trib stopped mooning over Blitz to ask Baar.

The medic nodded, and Blitz passed the brush back over so Baar could repeat the black slash the rest of his paint.

With the rest of the table distracted, Hammer leaned close and nodded to the drying bracers. “She’ll love it, sir.” 

Colt hoped she would.

**Author's Note:**

> I just have a lot of feels, okay?
> 
> Rancor's armor is so over-the-top, I had to embrace that. For folks confused by what Colt is painting, Shaak has white markings on her forearms, and Colt is painting those on his bracers in case she forgets Rancor has her back on Coruscant.... only for that reason.... Nothing else....
> 
> Also shoutout to [Artmusdin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/artimusdin/pseuds/artimusdin) who asked me if Colt would mark his armor for Shaak while making amazing art for this series that will appear in a later chapter!


End file.
